Twitter Inc.
/quotes/zigman/23556538/delayed/quotes/zigman/23556538/lastsaleTWTR reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell The company beat on earnings expectations, but the stock tanked after the company reported flat growth in monthly active users and a lower than expected outlook for the first quarter of 2016. The company reported 320 monthly active users for the quarter, but said it had already seen a bounceback with users in January. MarketWatch reporters Jennifer Booton (@jbooton) and Caitlin Huston (@hustonca) and tech columnist Therese Poletti (@tpoletti) will be live-blogged the results and the conference call.

Dorsey said they'll be adding more live stream videos, like the Periscope integration, and changing "weird rules around conversations" like having to put a period in front of a Twitter handle. But Dorsey doesn't address expanding 140-character limit directly.

Interesting that the bulk of Dorsey's time is spent on recruiting, is that really where a CEO's time should be spent when a company is under such a microscope and user growth is such a big issue?

5:45 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Dorsey, also the CEO of Square, said he's "always connected" and has a structure in place that he can break away from if something needs more attention. He sets out a schedule at the beginning of the week. In the future though, Dorsey said “the balance of my time is really set on recruiting.”

5:45 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter is hunting for a new board members -- wants someone with financial and media experience. Any lucky takers out there?

5:44 pm | by Caitlin Huston

And it wouldn't be a Twitter call with a question about Dorsey's time management.

5:43 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Back to logged-out users, Twitter says marketing efforts are still early, but that the "demand is strong."

5:40 pm | by Jennifer Booton

On margins, Twitter says this is the 'right time' to make investments that drive shareholder value, and that margins will eventually catch up with growth initiatives.

5:32 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Dorsey defines the difference between "while you were away" and today's timeline introduction. While you were away is in order of relevance, new timeline is more recent, in reverse chronological order. So the difference is order.

5:32 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Dorsey said Twitter is going to keep marketing efforts to bring on more logged-out users -- which represent a huge untapped market for the microblogging site. That is likely a part of the company's plan to simplify Twitter.

5:31 pm | by Therese Poletti

When asked about the new pilot with Google's DoubleClick, Twitter execs said they will have more info at the end of the first quarter as to how those tests went, but there are encouraging signs so far.

5:31 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Ah this analyst question focuses on ‘off-line’ users — or those who don’t necessary tweet or want to log-in to Twitter but want to watch what is happening on Twitter.

5:27 pm | by Caitlin Huston

The election and Olympics will be big for marketing on the platform, especially with video ads, says COO Adam Bain.

5:20 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Twitter lost users in Q4 but because daily active users were flat, they said those lost were “less high quality users.”

5:19 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Analysts are beating up Twitter a bit. Calling Moments "uninspiring."

5:16 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Twitter did increase its ad load per user, but says it's been more internationally, than domestically.

5:16 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter said the key engagement metrics it's is looking at (video views, time spent on site etc.) are trending positively despite the overall decline in MAU

5:14 pm | by Caitlin Huston

That said, Dorsey is also talking about "consolidating some strength" in some areas around the company, which sounds like a lay-off euphemism.

5:14 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Addressing an analyst for said Twitter's leadership is "in a state of flux," Dorsey said he's going to focus on adding more execs in 2016.

5:13 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Analyst just called out Twitter for having weaker engagement during this Super Bowl versus last year -- that's a blow as the company puts such a focus on the 'live event' benefit of the platform/

5:12 pm | by Therese Poletti

Twitter’s Dorsey says that every metric improves when it focuses on the core timeline.

5:10 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Dorsey says people like the algorithmic timeline so far, saw some "really promising growth." More people are tweeting and retweeting.

5:09 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Twitter says January MAU's were already bouncing back to Q3 levels. Anthony Noto says that's due to an increase in new users, increase in ressurected users and more retention.

5:07 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Wow that must be a record for the prepared comments section of an earnings call. While Amazon talked for 45 straight minutes, Twitter executives talked for a whopping 6. That’s good for us though! Means more analyst questions.

5:06 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Omid Kordestani, executive chair, is trying to reassure investors that changes in the platform take time, it will get better.

5:01 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Alright, Twitter's earnings conference call is kicking off! Let's see what the company has to say about this decline in users.

Twitter’s stock’s lowest trade so far in the after-hours sessions was $12.82 at 4:27:47 p.m. ET, when it was down 14.4%. That price was less than half the IPO price of $26, and less than a third of where it closed–$44.90–on its first day of trade on Nov. 7, 2013.

4:54 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter says small business revenue was the fastest growing segment on a year-over-year basis, driven by growth in new customers, though it remains the smallest segment of total advertising revenue by a considerable margin.

4:52 pm | by Caitlin Huston

We'll soon be turning to Twitter's earning call, which is the debut of a new format. Twitter executives will just be taking questions.

The call, scheduled for 5 p.m. EST, can also be viewed on Periscope, as is the company trend recently.

4:51 pm | by Jennifer Booton

While total advertising revenue grew 48% year-over-year to $641 million in the quarter, Twitter said there was a meaningful slowdown in in app install ads (which is mobile), relative to the third quarter.

In the future, Twitter says it won't include SMS Fast Followers in its monthly active user numbers.

4:47 pm | by Caitlin Huston

As far as monthly active users go, Twitter says its 320 million for Q4, still flat with the previous quarter. But if you exclude SMS fast followers, Twitter monthly active users were lower than in the third quarter.

4:42 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Twitter is really emphasizing the live aspect after new of the algorithm:

"We're focused now on what Twitter does best: live. Twitter is live: live commentary, live connections, live conversations."

4:41 pm | by Therese Poletti

Twitter's fourth quarter revenue of $710.5 million was exactly in line with consensus among analyst estimates, mobile represented 80% of its monthly active users.

4:41 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Periscope co-founder Kayvon Beykpour was promoted to the executive team at Twitter.

Twitter seems to be happy with the launch of Moments, its Snapchat-like real-time news service. The company says it's going to be expanding it, enabling more people and media partners to create and share Moments.

4:36 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter says it's going to 'fix' confusing things on the platform to make it more user friendly ...like the @name syntax. For example, now if you type .@name versus @name it appears differently in the feed.

4:35 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter says new video capabilities on Twitter helped increase views on the platform by 220x from December 2014 to December 2015.

4:33 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter non-GAAP EPS was 16 cents, versus the FactSet consensus estimate of 12 cents. Last year, the company's adjusted earnings came in at 12 cents a share.

4:31 pm | by Jennifer Booton

From Twitter:

"We saw a decline in monthly active usage in Q4, but we've already seen January monthly actives bounce back to Q3 levels."

4:29 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter annual stats:

Revenue: $2.2 billion (a 58% year-over-year increase)

Twitter quarterly stats:

Revenue: 710 million

Monthly Active Users: 320 million

4:29 pm | by Therese Poletti

Wall Street may not be happy that Twitter $TWTR said that its average monthly active users came in at 320 million for the fourth quarter, flat with the third quarter.

4:26 pm | by Jennifer Booton

Twitter stock falls 9% in after-hours trade following results.

4:23 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Our Form 8-K was filed with the SEC at 1PM PT today, there appears to be a delay on the Edgar / SEC site.

In case you missed it: This new timeline is an option for users. If you choose that option, your feed will show you tweets it thinks you want to see. These tweets are recent and in reverse chronological order, Twitter says.

3:43 pm

Twitter’ stock has been hit hard recently, with shares down 24% in one month. But today things were looking up a bit, with shares up as much as 5% after news of the new algorithmic timeline option.

3:41 pm | by Caitlin Huston

Welcome to the Twitter live blog! Twitter is scheduled to report after the bell today. Here’s what FactSet analysts are expecting going into earnings:

EPS: 12 cents

Revenue: $710.1 million.

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